Welcome welcome to 2007. Every year around this time, I'll write a personal reflection of 2006. I wonder how long this entry will be this time. 2006 has been a rather interesting year. It was a year of milestones. My father's 50th birthday, my 21st birthday and my admission into university. Ok maybe I could also add in my sister's admission as well. 2006 was also the year I finally completed my National Service. Went to Hong Kong with my family in one of our few rare holidays together. Went to Malaysia with the SMU badminton team for a badminton exchange program. Managed to survive in my first semester in school.

Just like last year, I also had another gatehring this year. The only difference was that this year, the crowd was totally different. Shian Pin and Michelle were in Korea. Casey Soon made a cameo appearance because he had to go to his aunty's place for celebrations. Instead of having it like a potluck style (contributed by Michelle and Shian Pin last year), Chloe, Edwin and me did most of the grocery shopping at the NTUC in Marine Parade. I shouldn't be the one telling you whether we had a good time. Take a look for yourselves.



Chloe was helping me in the kitchen. She is skewering the Sotong because obviously, I have no idea how to skewer a sotong. And yes, Edwin was just standing there looking at Chloe pretending I didn't exist:P Ok no offense but Edwin was pretty apt with tearing the aluminium foils for the fish fillets:D For the record, we had chicken wings (marinated by Chloe), Potato Salad (Chloe), Prawns, Chicken Fillet, Fish Fillets and Sotong.



No, Aaron Ta wasn't the chef. I was! Or at least I was for the 1st 2 hours or so. Lets just put it simply. Its the job of a good host to ensure that his guests are happy:)



So while everyone else was watching Struat Little 2 on the television, Daddy here was doing the cooking. Ok so what if it was really simple. Put food on the pit, brush a light layer of oil over it, flip and repeat until the food gets cooked:) I still did it:D



L to R. Ashton (Aaron's brother), Aaron and Wei Wen posing with tongs and all. Everyone helped me out in the end. Thanks guys. I knew you couldn't bear to watch daddy die of hunger from doing all the cooking and not having time to eat. Or wait. Was your true motives to get me away from the pit coz the cooking sucked. Oh you guys are pure evil :Þ



And here I finally had enough time to 'retire' from cooking and pose for a picture:D





Everyone had smiles on their faces when it was time for mahjong:D



Countdown to the new year. We deployed party poppers and made a mess of the whole place. But my father wasn't through. A little bit of red wine for everyone of us to toast the coming of a new year:D That was a great moment even if the CUPS were not those stylish wine glasses which you always see in the movies.



My absolute favourite picture of the day. The group shot. The smiles on the faces were all genuine. At least I hoped from the bottom of my heart that it is. The thing about being a host/organizer is that your joy is derived from the joy of others. So guys if you hated the gathering just feel free to settle this with me in private :D



Who needs a cup when you can just take a good swig from the bottle? Daddy style hahaha



Photo of Bil and me. No. Casey and me:(



I continued with mahjong. Last round of the night and my tiles were so bad I decided to do the ultimate super suay lineup. The shi san yao. Basically 1 and 9 of each suites and one of each of the da pais. I do not know whether I was so unlucky I kept getting in all those really lousy tiles which only actually fuelled my lineup or was I really lucky to be so unlucky. I guess too much negative luck turns positive. Anyways here is my 1st shi shan yao of my life:D Thanks to Wei Wen for the last tile.




The dreaded clean up. Everyone was watching Step-up while I mopped the floor and washed the dishes:D I was quite impressed with myself if I am allowed to be. Haha. Anyways it was a great great evening. A big thank you to everyone who helped out in some way or another or simply just by showing up. :D Happy New Year and best wishes to every single one of you guys:D Oh, and to me too! Hahahaha